Balkan Market to Pick Greece This Year

Tourism Media & Events road show. Photo source: Tourism Media & Events.

Travelers from Balkan countries are expected to visit Greece this year boosting the number of road arrivals to the country by 40 percent over 2022, said industry insiders attending recent Tourism Media & Events road show events.

The Balkan market and mainly travelers form Serbia, Romania and Bulgaria will be making their way to Greece after nearly three years of Covid-related  restrictions.

Road tourism to Greece, which is mainly supported by Balkan markets, was very slow over the past few years compared to air travel which managed to recoup 2019 levels in 2022. Indicatively, a total of 2.4 million travelers visited Greece by road in the first half of the year compared to 4 million in January-June 2019, down by 41.3 percent or 1.7 million arrivals. In the 11 months to November 2022, Greece welcomed 7.6 million visitors via road compared to 11.8 million in the same period in 2019 marking a 35.7 percent decline over the same months in 2019.

This is expected to change. According to feedback collected at the Road Show events held in the three countries, demand for Greece is “exceptionally high” with airlines in Romania and Serbia looking to increase charter flights and enhance flight schedules to Greek destinations.

Tourism Media & Events held its Road Show | Greek Tourism Workshop in Belgrade, featuring Eastern Macedonia as honored country, then in Bucharest, and lastly in Sofia. The three events brought together dozens of tourism stakeholders and professionals who had the chance to hold B2B meetings with local tour operators and agents, network and promote their products.